What does Diablo 4 need?

[Coldkil]

You could have commodities in the AH but then have a strong crafting or alternative gear progression path that uses those commodities. So you could perhaps have unique drops from bosses/rares that can be traded (and can be used to craft specific legendaries) or have runes and allow people to trade runes as well. Let people scrap unwanted gear for such materials as well. It would make for a fairly active economy while still placing limitations (you'd still need the plans to craft those items or the right item with rune sockets for the runes etc)

Makes sense - the idea is that while trading is allowed, it's heavily "regulated" so items/currency/anything is costantly removed from the economy.

[Velshin]

Yes and no. When they were developing WoW, the company was on the rise. Also, the game was never meant to reach these proportions - in an old interview they said that WoW was aiming at 500k players tops, but then like 3 million people bought the game day one and everything went just skyrocketing.

I'm not saying they wouldn't be able to do a soulslike game right now or that they don't have the means to do it, but this is not the right moment especially for a franchise like Diablo that needs a great game right now and they cannot simply afford to miss the shot. So they went the "easier" route, which makes sense. If D3 ended to be the great legacy bearer everyone expected it to be, i'm pretty sure a soulslike spinoff game in the Diablo universe would be a reality.

If D4 is a true great Diablo game, then we can expect something on the line to happen. Projects may be canned, but concepts stay and can be recovered later on.

I maybe biased but a soul like game can be an epic great game as well. It doesn't have to be traditional Diablo like for it to be great just my personal opinion here.

[Coldkil]

I maybe biased but a soul like game can be an epic great game as well. It doesn't have to be traditional Diablo like for it to be great just my personal opinion here.

Fully agree. It's just my reasoning based on the road D3 has taken over the years and the last two Blizzcons being abysmal for Diablo fans and the franchise - more a reaction to the angry players. How many times we have seen and still see "they should have made it more like D2?".

I don't know. I expect (or desire?) the new Diablo to be pretty innovative especially in the progression/itemization systems. Playstyle will likely be more akin to the standard ARPGs (isometric POV, fast-paced, hordes of monsters). If anything i'd like it to be more like Wildstar - the combat there was awesome.

[Velshin]

Fully agree. It's just my reasoning based on the road D3 has taken over the years and the last two Blizzcons being abysmal for Diablo fans and the franchise - more a reaction to the angry players. How many times we have seen and still see "they should have made it more like D2?".

I don't know. I expect (or desire?) the new Diablo to be pretty innovative especially in the progression/itemization systems. Playstyle will likely be more akin to the standard ARPGs (isometric POV, fast-paced, hordes of monsters). If anything i'd like it to be more like Wildstar - the combat there was awesome.

I agree 100% because of what happened to the last two Blizzcon now Blizzard have to deal with the massive huge of their players high expectation for the Diablo series for sure. Yeah Wild Star had an insane fun combat system damn that game had potential...pity the company didn't know how to expand and improve it.

[Wondercrab]

Sadly I think it's a strong bet that Diablo 4 is going to be designed in a way that chases all of the current live service trends. Diablo III started out messy due to the monetisation model but improved dramatically once the expansion came out (and money was removed from the equation). It's the sort of game that's ripe for lootboxes and other microtransactions in the modern AAA market. While it would be pretty silly of Blizzard to design it around a lootbox economy in the current environment, I'd fully expect a lot of the features that we take for granted in D3 to be tied into things like boosters and microtransactions in D4. Transmog, ease of leveling, stash space etc. aren't likely to be as honestly designed as they are now.

I hope I'm wrong, but the "live service" potential of a game like Diablo seems like too juicy of a cash cow for a company like Blizzard to resist the urge to sour it with features that push players towards an in-game shop.

[Gratlim]

A auction house (not RMAH, only gold) and a hub for players to trade items. Their removal is what killed D3 grind motivation for me. Still playing some GR on my Switch but that is it.

[Coldkil]

A auction house (not RMAH, only gold) and a hub for players to trade items. Their removal is what killed D3 grind motivation for me. Still playing some GR on my Switch but that is it.

Trading doesn't make the game better of players are able to find everything they need by themselves in a short time, like it's happening now. Trading shouldn't be as convenient as playing the game though - make it too "easy" and then you'll have D3 all over again.

After trading on PoE and seeing the shortcomings of that system, i thiung a middle ground should me something like this:
- shared common marketplace for crafting mats, consumables, "maps" where everyone can drop their unwanted stuff; this works because everything in the list is stuff that's bought to be used/consumed immediately so you don't need to put hard limits on it as it's constantly removed from the market by the item design itself
- personal NPC (account wide to avoid mules) that is your personal item shop: limited to X number of postings anytime, and everything bought through that becomes soulbound. This way you limit the amount of stuff into the market and avoid price flipping that would just bloat the economy.

The whole idea is to make trading meaningful. You aim for a specific thing and farm for it, as you would by playing. If you don't drop it but manage to get the required currency meanwhile, then you can buy it from someone.

[deepjazz]

I want diablo 4 with a loot system and trading like diablo 2 has.

have dungeons for 5 players all over the world, you just click it and signup for it and continue questing and killing, when there are 5 people you will join the dungeon.
you could even make diablo a huge raid where you need to kill trash and all the current bosses in a single 20 man raid that you can sign up for.

anyway I think blizzard is in a for a ride if they dont announce diablo 4.. they have all the hate with that heartstone thing and if they manage to get everyone angry over only getting mobile games at this blizzcon it's going to be a shitshow with angry people.

[Zero3]

I have a few ideas based on mechanics from different games that i liked:

1. No more acts, just the whole map of playable zones that you can run anywhere. Only load it for transitioning from above ground to under ground.

2. More players in that "world session" depending on their server, could be 50 constantly, one logs out another logs in to keep the number at max for the room/session/world.

3. The zones to be different dificulty, imagine going from redridge to searing gorge directly, that would be death. So you need to have , like the acts, a progression in this case leveling.

4. Each zone has a main hub, like the current acts have. There you can trade with other players or do rifts/grifts, or you can go by yourself in the wild and pick up on quests much the same like the ones currently in the bounty system. So basicaly level to your own taste.

5. Each few hours there are invasions on the hub. So no more just attacking but also defending. Where waves of mobs storm the gates of the hub, based on the level of the zone.

6. Professions, since it would be open world it would be a good idea to add more time sinks with good rewards, what comes to mind right now (even if it wasn't that popular in wow) is archaeology. It would fit with the world since there's already so much lore and history for each zone like Westmarch or Mount Arreat.

7. Scale of the zone. Make it a lot more big that it would be if you'd merge all acts together now. If they can make wow zones so vast with all the graphics and 3rd person bla bla, i'm sure they could make the whole of Sanctuary as big as say Eastern Kingdoms. No fast travel or make it very limited, run to where you need to go or maybe get a horse. The idea is to make it seem important that you are leaving a zone and might not come back for some time. I presume it would take some time to run even on horse from booty bay (tristram) to Western Plaguelands ( Westmarch).

8. Camping. Running all the way from tristram to westmarch will be along journey so it would be nice if you could make camp alone or with friends. If there's professions i'm sure you could place an anvil or access your jeweler's kit so you can empty out your bags and get some buffs after a few minutes of camping.

9. Dungeons to be played like darkest dungeon game. You could go normaly like now, or light-less, completely dark where the enemies get extra damage but the loot is better. It also adds another difficulty to rifts or grifts. Normal ones and light-less ones. And also you can't see what's around you, just a very small ring around your character so no more running around pulling everything.

10. No more class specific loot only. At least not at first. I liked more the random stats from the time of RMAH, it made it harder to get at least proper gear. It fits well with time sinking and scale of the game.

[kenn9530]

It needs the D2 necromancer

considering the d3 necro has all the abilities of the d2 necro what is your point

[slipshade]

Diablo 4 needs an economy

Even Diablo 3 on release had one. I completely stopped supporting the game when everything became untradable outside of your current in game party.

Bind on pickup type stuff is what Ruined the entire D3 franchise for me i moved on to Path of Exile and many other games instead.

They also need to bring back some kind of runeword type system or something or make cool stuff like etherial items again. And like crazy GG rares that are 0.001% chance at rolling.

What i hated the most about d3 release was the limited slots for abilities and the severe lack of CUSTOMIZATION

I STILL to this day boot up D2 LOD every now and again even with it being that old because the itemization / customization and economy are just that freaking good.

[Rafalga]

They need to move FAAAR away from MMO tier item progression first and for most.
NO set items (which kills like half of your item slots for any forms of meaningful upgrades) No "+%100000 dmg to x skill" crap.
Don't dumb down gameplay just because you want to release it on console too. PoE didn't and it works pretty decently.
NO class fantasy shit ( wanna go whirlwind wizard for some fucked up reason? you got it!) which means no class locked skills (items providing +x to skills like D2)
Make crafting actually mean something. That alone laids the groundwork for your trade based economy.
Make gold actually meaningful.
Legendaries that singlehandedly making builds available or boosting builds to next level. Not set items based 14 item slot locked boring as shit builds.

I know it sounds a lot like PoE which is totally normal since they made a lot of things right for a game to have a healthy life span. No need to trying to invent the wheel once again.
But i highly doubt current Blizzard has any actual talent or motivation left to come up something remarkable. They probably just rework some of D3's mechanics slap on some new graphics and release it.

I hope they prove me wrong.

[dragnipur]

I hope D4 is closer to Grim down,D2,PoE.I want more dark and spooky atmosphere.Skeletens and blood.

[babyback]

-They should go the PoE route with the freedom of classes.
-An in game economy with proper trading etc
-Proper guild content
-SSF as in PoE
-Screw the torment system when it comes to difficulties. Heck, scrap the difficulties. They’re just arbitrary anyway. Just make the rifts harder with affixes and whatnot.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Honestly it just needs to be a good game. Diablo 3 wasn't a bad game either. It just had a horrific launch. The real money AH system was a disaster. Then it pretty much had no real followup. The game just was base and raw for way to long. Then its expansion hit and it added in a LOT of what the original game needed. But then that kind of just sat there forever without anything for way to long either. Seasonal stuff is great in practice, but if the new season changes nothing or adds nothing it can be entertaining a few times as you progress though the few classes each time but eventually.. its like.. do I want to do this for the 12th time.. again.. the same thing? The answer seems to be no for a lot more people than it is yes.

[Kelathos]

Diablo 4 needs to be... action RPG, the MMO edition. But the modern concept of MMO, which has evolved beyond simply copying WoW.

[Dead Moose Fandango]

Necromancer and barbarian hero. Maybe druid too. I did enjoy that. Also, I want to do more stuff with Leah's soul.

[Kokolums]

I think (but take this with a grain of salt) they're just aiming to create a solid Diablo experience people remember from the days of D2 with new/improved systems so they can recover from the PR damage the franchise has sustained from D3 release and afterward.

As I say, the problem is they need a value-add of some kind. Today, there are plenty of ARPG makers out there. There are plenty of video games out there. Blizzard must have something unique to bring to the table, otherwise they just get lost in the shuffle. Their value-add used to be a bleeding edge social network. But what is it today?

[Icoblablubb]

Diablo 4 needs a complete new dev team don't let any D3 dev touch that game .. oh and ofc it needs content updates not these shitty themed season because these are a joke

[babyback]

Diablo 4 needs a complete new dev team don't let any D3 dev touch that game .. oh and ofc it needs content updates not these shitty themed season because these are a joke

There is nothing wrong with the dev team and Diablo 3 is still a good game. There is just no reason to play it atm and I agree with the seasonal stuff.